Release The Director's Cut of Thomas And The Magic Railroad
When Thomas And The Magic Railroad was released in the summer of 2000, the reception was negative and the reviews were unfavorable because of the story that seemed to have been off and when it was released in the UK, critics were unfamiliar with Shining Time Station and accused the film for Americanizing Thomas. Because of the poor reviews and the reception of the film, Writer/Director Britt Allcroft was forced to stand down as chairman of The Britt Allcroft Company and was renamed Gullane Entertainment and removed from the creative side of Thomas. Then In February of 2007, everything changed when a member of SiF found a copy of the script for Thomas And The Magic Railroad dated May 19th 1999. What was written inside the script and released in July 2000 was very different revealing major scenes and plots that were cut. The main villain, PT Boomer was described as a drifter through choice and was Burnett Stone's adversary and the one who crashed Lady not Diesel 10. PT Boomer was jealous of the relationship Burnett had with Tasha and he bullied Burnett into allowing him to take Lady for a ride and crashed her in revenge. Afterwards he left Shining Time and Burnett tried to restore her but to no avail. He returns forty years later, bent on completing his revenge by finding and destroying Lady once and for all. Boomer would spend most of his time throughout the movie confronting Burnett Stone and Billy Twofeathers and digging into Muffle Mountain looking for Lady. He doesn't have any connections with Diesel 10 and doesn't believe in magic. In March of 2000, Britt Allcroft had to do a test screening in a shopping mall and was forced to make drastic cuts. PT Boomer (played by Doug Lennox) was cut out of the film because parents said he was too frightening for the kids. Alongside with Doug Lennox was the original voice talent: Fireman and part time Taxi Driver, John Bellis became involved with the movie when he picked Britt Allcroft up from the airport. When Britt heard John utter a few words, she realized she found the voice of Thomas and offered him the part. When interviewed by BBC News, he said: "I'm a bit shell shocked and I have to keep pinching myself to remind myself that it had really happened." Unfortunately during the screening, test audiences didn't like his Liverpudlian accent that John used for Thomas and complained that he made Thomas sound too old. The part went to Eddie Glen. John Bellis said he was gutted but wished them well. Michael Angelis the UK narrator for Thomas, voiced James and Percy for the film, but test audiences argued that he too sounded too old and the parts for James and Percy went to Susan Roman and Linda Ballantyne. Australian actor Keith Scott voiced Diesel 10 but he was dropped when the test audience said he sounded too scary. The part went to Neil Crone who improvised most of the dialogue and first voiced Diesel 10 using a gruff Russian accent. Afterwards somebody was worried they might find it offensive so he had to do it again with more of a New Jersey accent. For the next few months Britt Allcroft and editor Ron Wisman worked on many revisions and finished in late June. Many years later, the cast and fans believed the film would have been less then a flop if the film stayed the way it was meant to be. Russell Means who played Billy Twofeathers supported a release for the director's cut and Britt Allcroft is trying to find a way to get it screened. Upon the discovery of the chase scene and the japanese trailer featuring PT Boomer, I decided to start this petition to restore and release the director's cut of the film by looking for the original film elements and re-edit PT Boomer scenes and the original voices back to Thomas And The Magic Railroad and try to rehire Hummie Mann to write a new musical score treatment since PT Boomer was gone by the time he arrived. With your support, we can bring Britt Allcroft's true film back from out of the shadows and into the light and make her dream come true. External links * SiF's Magic Railroad Revealed page * Thomas & the Magic Railroad - PT Boomer Chase Scene * #RestoreTheMagic * Petition * Thunderclap Category:Petition Category:Campaign Category:Director's Cut Category:Restore the Magic Category:Thunderclap